Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1887-06-02
In the Ozark Region.

II wish that some of you fellows who
like to talk about the sport you have
hunting here in the cold east could just
pack up your traps about now and go
back with me to country that a chap
can live in with pleasure and comfort
while the gales and snow and frost Of
this Atlantic climate are getting their
work IN to the best kind of advantage"
said ''Chip' Macguire, of Springfield,
Mo-, at the Morton House the other
night. 'Game is always plenty in
southern Missouri" said he, ''but this
year it seems to have outdone itself in
abundance. l came over the old Kan
sas City, Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad
last week, and although that was early
in the season for the birds to be making
themselves conspicuous, I'll bet that l
counted hundred fiocks of wild tur-
keys. and there wasn't q flock out of
which couldn't have shot one or more
of the splendid birds from my window
in the car. The railroad in one place
runs on trestles over swamp for
several miles, and in the extensive
ponds and bayous of that wild stretch
Of country thousands upon thousands of
wild ducks and geese of all varieties
were feeding, some of the water being
covered for acres with the fowl, until
their groups looked like islands in the
lakes. These fowl seemed to De SO used
to the noise of the trains that did not
see one move its position through being
startled by tine cars in all that distance.
THE day before / left Springfield
saw bushwhacker come into town with
q mule-team load of deer carcasses of
the finest kind. bought one simply to
obtain the magnificent head and ant.
lers, and all paid for the whole busi-
ness was 1926. There were at least
two hundred pounds of the best venison
included IN the purchase. You could
not get that head and those horns here
for less than $15. Among the other
large game reported plenty and waiting
for the hunter is bear. This gentle
creature more particularly affects the
jungles and swamps of northern Arkan-
sas, and if an unsuspecting sportsman
is going into these parts he will have to
keep his eye skinned to find thorough
fares unobstructed by bruin. The lynx,
and now and then that relic of the days
when the country belonged to two-leg-
ged as we'll as four-footed savages. the
American panther, still hold as land
tenure in that garden spot of the south
west. and, am told, greet visitors after
the manner of their kind. l never
daily with game of this kind, but l
know men who do, and what they say
may be depended on.
Il went out for a rabbit hunt few
days before l left home, and I got tired
Of tripping over them. That is no ex-
aggeration, for | give you my word that
they jumped out from every bunch of
brush and leaves that lay in our path.
After bagging all | could carry l went
to shooting quail for friend who was
with me to back home. These birds
actually paid no attention to the gun at
all, but the fiocks l shot into kept right
on feeding as if nothing had happened,
and rather objected to my picking up
the ones 1 had shot. We speak of gray
and black squirrels out there as YOU
might refer to sparrows here, for they
take possession of towns and villages in
about the same way.
"The beauty of it all is that the later
the season grows the better the weather
gets, and any of you fellows can come
out there New Years and strike it
right, and spend the remainder of the
winter in clover. You won't be apt to
see much snow; The Ozark region is
the greatest country know OF, and the
water out there is immense. If you
want to have q good hunt come out and
see me. and leave all your medicine at
home. IN Y San.